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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

(Mark one)

☑  ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

☐  TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from _____ to _____

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Commission file number 001-38373

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TRANSOCEAN LTD.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

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Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: +41 (41) 749-0500

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.   Yes ☑   No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act.   Yes ☐   No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.   Yes ☑   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).   Yes ☑   No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company.  See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☑ Accelerated filer ☐ Non-accelerated filer ☐
Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined by Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).   Yes ☐   No ☑ 

As of June 30, 2020, 614,612,545 shares were outstanding and the aggregate market value of shares held by non-affiliates was approximately $1.12 billion (based on the reported closing market price of the shares of Transocean Ltd. on June 30, 2020 of $1.83 per share and assuming that all directors and executive officers of the Company are “affiliates,” although the Company does not acknowledge that any such person is actually an “affiliate” within the meaning of the federal securities laws).  As of February 16, 2021, 616,025,144 shares were outstanding.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement to be filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of December 31, 2020, for its 2021 annual general meeting of shareholders, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

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TRANSOCEAN LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES

INDEX TO ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2020

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Forward-Looking Information

The statements included in this annual report regarding future financial performance and results of operations and other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States (“U.S.”) Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  Forward-looking statements in this annual report include, but are not limited to, statements about the following subjects:

Forward-looking statements in this annual report are identifiable by use of the following words and other similar expressions:

Such statements are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, but not limited to:

The foregoing risks and uncertainties are beyond our ability to control, and in many cases, we cannot predict the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements.  Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated.  All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties.  You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.  Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement.  We expressly disclaim any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations or beliefs with regard to the statement or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based, except as required by law.

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PART I

Item 1.Business

Overview

Transocean Ltd. (together with its subsidiaries and predecessors, unless the context requires otherwise, “Transocean,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells.  As of February 16, 2021, we owned or had partial ownership interests in and operated a fleet of 37 mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of 27 ultra-deepwater floaters and 10 harsh environment floaters.  As of February 16, 2021, we were constructing two ultra-deepwater drillships.

Our primary business is to contract our drilling rigs, related equipment and work crews predominantly on a dayrate basis to drill oil and gas wells.  We specialize in technically demanding regions of the global offshore drilling business with a particular focus on ultra-deepwater and harsh environment drilling services.  Our mobile offshore drilling fleet is one of the most versatile fleets in the world, consisting of drillship and semisubmersible floaters used in support of offshore drilling activities and offshore support services on a worldwide basis.

Transocean Ltd. is a Swiss corporation with its registered office in Steinhausen, Canton of Zug and with principal executive offices located at Turmstrasse 30, 6312 Steinhausen, Switzerland.  Our telephone number at that address is +41 41 749-0500.  Our shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RIG.”  For information about the revenues, operating income, assets and other information related to our business, our segments and the geographic areas in which we operate, see “Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Part II. Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data—Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 20—Operating Segments, Geographic Analysis and Major Customers.”

Drilling Fleet

Overview—Our drilling fleet of floaters consists of drillships and semisubmersibles, which are mobile and can be moved to new locations in response to customer demand.  Our drilling equipment is suitable for both exploration and development, and we engage in both types of drilling activity.  Our mobile offshore drilling units are designed to operate in locations away from port for extended periods of time and have living quarters for the crews, a helicopter landing deck and storage space for drill pipe, riser and drilling supplies.

Drillships are generally self-propelled vessels, shaped like conventional ships, and are the most mobile of the major rig types.  Our high-specification drillships are equipped with dynamic positioning thruster systems, which allows them to maintain position without anchors through the use of onboard propulsion and station-keeping systems.  Ultra-deepwater drillships typically have greater deck load and storage capacity than early generation semisubmersible rigs, which provides logistical and resupply efficiency benefits for customers.  Drillships are generally better suited to operations in calmer sea conditions and typically do not operate in areas considered to be harsh environments.  We have 22 ultra-deepwater drillships that are, and two ultra-deepwater drillships under construction that will be, equipped with our patented dual-activity technology.  Dual-activity technology employs structures, equipment and techniques using two drilling stations within a dual derrick to allow these drillships to perform simultaneous drilling tasks in a parallel, rather than a sequential manner, which reduces critical path activity and improves efficiency in both exploration and development drilling.  In addition to dynamic positioning thruster systems, dual-activity technology and industry-leading hoisting capacity, our contracted newbuild drillship under construction will be equipped with two 20,000 pounds per square inch (“psi”) blowout preventers and, if the relevant conditions are satisfied, our newbuild drillship with a conditional agreement will be equipped with one 20,000 psi blowout preventer as required by the conditional agreement and will be equipped to accommodate a second 20,000 psi blowout preventer.

Semisubmersibles are floating vessels that can be partially submerged by means of a water ballast system such that the lower column sections and pontoons are below the water surface during drilling operations.  Semisubmersibles are known for stability, making them well suited for operating in rough sea conditions.  Semisubmersible floaters are capable of maintaining their position over a well either through dynamic positioning or the use of mooring systems.  Although most semisubmersible rigs are relocated with the assistance of tugs, some units are self-propelled and move between locations under their own power when afloat on pontoons.  Four of our 13 semisubmersibles are equipped with dual-activity technology and also have mooring capability.  Two of these four dual-activity units are custom-designed, high capacity semisubmersible drilling rigs, equipped for year-round operations in harsh environments, including those of the Norwegian continental shelf and sub-Arctic waters.

Fleet categories—We further categorize the drilling units of our fleet as follows: (1) “ultra-deepwater floaters” and (2) “harsh environment floaters.”  Ultra-deepwater floaters are equipped with high-pressure mud pumps and are capable of drilling in water depths of 4,500 feet or greater.  Harsh environment floaters are capable of drilling in harsh environments in water depths between 1,500 and 10,000 feet and have greater displacement, which offers larger variable load capacity, more useable deck space and better motion characteristics.

Fleet status—Depending on market conditions, we may idle or stack our non-contracted rigs.  An idle rig is between drilling contracts, readily available for operations, and operating costs are typically at or near normal operating levels.  A stacked rig typically has reduced operating costs, is staffed by a reduced crew or has no crew and is (a) preparing for an extended period of inactivity, (b) expected to continue to be inactive for an extended period, or (c) completing a period of extended inactivity.  Stacked rigs will continue to incur operating

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costs at or above normal operating levels for approximately 30 days following initiation of stacking.  Some idle rigs and all stacked rigs require additional costs to return to service.  The actual cost to return to service, which in many instances could be significant and could fluctuate over time, depends upon various factors, including the availability and cost of shipyard facilities, the cost of equipment and materials, the extent of repairs and maintenance that may ultimately be required and time and cost of assembling and training crew.  We consider these factors, together with market conditions, length of contract, dayrate and other contract terms, when deciding whether to return a stacked rig to service.  We may not return some stacked rigs to work for drilling services.

Drilling units—The following tables, presented as of February 12, 2021, provide certain specifications for our rigs.  Unless otherwise noted, the stated location of each rig indicates either the current drilling location, if the rig is operating, or the next operating location, if the rig is in shipyard with a follow-on contract.  The dates provided represent the expected time of completion, the year placed into service, and, if applicable, the year of the most recent upgrade.  As of February 12, 2021, we owned all of the drilling rigs in our fleet noted in the tables below, except for the following: (1) the harsh environment floater Transocean Norge, which is owned through our 33.0 percent ownership interest in Orion Holdings (Cayman) Limited (together with its subsidiary, “Orion”), and (2) the ultra-deepwater floater Petrobras 10000, which is subject to a finance lease through August 2029.

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Drilling Contracts

Our contracts to provide offshore drilling services are individually negotiated and vary in their terms and conditions.  We obtain most of our drilling contracts through competitive bidding against other contractors and direct negotiations with operators.  Drilling contracts generally provide for payment on a dayrate basis, with higher rates for periods while the drilling unit is operating and lower rates or zero rate for periods of mobilization or when drilling operations are interrupted or restricted by equipment breakdowns, adverse environmental conditions or other conditions beyond our control.  A dayrate drilling contract generally extends over a period of time either covering the drilling of a single well or group of wells or covering a stated term.  At December 31, 2020, our contract backlog was approximately $8.1 billion, representing a decrease of 22 percent and a decrease of 35 percent, respectively, compared to the contract backlog at December 31, 2019 and 2018, which was $10.4 billion and $12.5 billion, respectively.  See “Part II. Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Performance and Other Key Indicators.”

Certain of our drilling contracts may be cancelable for the convenience of the customer, typically with the payment of an early termination payment.  Such payments, however, may not fully compensate us for the loss of the contract.  Contracts also customarily provide for either automatic termination or termination at the option of the customer, typically without payment of any termination fee, under various circumstances such as non-performance, in the event of extended downtime or impaired performance due to equipment or operational issues or periods of extended downtime due to force majeure events.  Many of these events are beyond our control.  The contract term in some instances may be extended by the customer exercising options for the drilling of additional wells or for an additional term.  Our contracts also typically include a provision that allows the customer to extend the contract to finish drilling a well-in-progress.  During periods of depressed market conditions, our customers may seek to renegotiate firm drilling contracts to reduce the term of their obligations or the average dayrate through term extensions, or may seek to early terminate or repudiate their contracts.  Suspension of drilling contracts will result in the reduction in or loss of dayrate for the period of the suspension.  If our customers cancel some of our contracts and we are unable to secure new contracts on a timely basis and on substantially similar terms, if contracts are suspended for an extended period of time or if a number of our contracts are renegotiated, it could adversely affect our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.  See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks related to our business—Our drilling contracts may be terminated due to a number of events, and, during depressed market conditions, our customers may seek to repudiate or renegotiate their contracts.”

Under dayrate drilling contracts, consistent with standard industry practice, our customers, as the operators, generally assume, and grant indemnity for, subsurface and well control risks, and their consequential damages.  Under all of our current drilling contracts, our customers, indemnify us for pollution damages in connection with reservoir fluids stemming from operations under the contract, and we indemnify our customers for pollution that originates above the surface of the water from the rig from substances in our control, such as diesel used onboard the rig or other fluids stored onboard the rig.  Also, our customers indemnify us for consequential damages they incur, damage to the well or reservoir, loss of subsurface oil and gas and the cost of bringing the well under control.  However, our drilling contracts are individually negotiated, and the degree of indemnification we receive from our customers for the risks discussed above may vary from contract to contract, based on market conditions and customer requirements existing when the contract was negotiated.  In some instances, we have contractually agreed upon certain limits to our indemnification rights and can be responsible for damages up to a specified maximum dollar amount.  The nature of our liability and the prevailing market conditions, among other factors, can influence such contractual terms.  In most instances in which we are indemnified for damages to the well, we have the responsibility to redrill the well at a reduced dayrate.  Notwithstanding a contractual indemnity from a customer, there can be no assurance that our customers will be financially able to indemnify us or will otherwise honor their contractual indemnity obligations.

The interpretation and enforceability of a contractual indemnity depends upon the specific facts and circumstances involved, as governed by applicable laws, and may ultimately need to be decided by a court or other proceeding, which will need to consider the specific contract language, the facts and applicable laws.  The law generally considers contractual indemnity for criminal fines and penalties to be against public policy.  Courts also restrict indemnification for criminal fines and penalties.  The inability or other failure of our customers to fulfill their indemnification obligations, or unenforceability of our contractual protections could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows.  See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks related to our business—Our business involves numerous operating hazards, and our insurance and indemnities from our customers may not be adequate to cover potential losses from our operations.”

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Markets

Our operations are geographically dispersed in oil and gas exploration and development areas throughout the world.  We operate in a single, global offshore drilling market, as our drilling rigs are mobile assets and can be moved according to prevailing market conditions.  We may mobilize our drilling rigs between regions for a variety of reasons, including to respond to customer contracting requirements or to capture observed market demand.  Consequently, we cannot predict the future percentage of our revenues that will be derived from particular geographic areas.  As of February 12, 2021, our drilling fleet, including stacked and idle rigs, but excluding rigs under construction, was located in Greece (eight units), the Norwegian North Sea (seven units), the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (seven units), Brazil (three units), Malaysia (three units), the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”) North Sea (two units), Trinidad (two unit), Angola (one unit), Canada (one unit), India (one unit), Myanmar (one unit), and Namibia (one unit).

We categorize the market sectors in which we operate as follows: (1) ultra-deepwater and deepwater, (2) harsh environment, and (3) midwater.  We offer our drilling services across all of these market sectors, collectively known as the floater market, with our drillships and semisubmersibles, 11 of which are suited to work in harsh environments.  We generally view the ultra-deepwater and deepwater market sector as water depths beginning at 4,500 feet and extending to the maximum water depths in which rigs are capable of drilling, which is currently up to 12,000 feet.  The midwater market sector includes water depths from approximately 300 feet to approximately 4,500 feet.  The harsh environment market sector includes regions that are more challenged by lower temperatures, harsher weather conditions and water currents.

The market for offshore drilling rigs and related services reflects oil companies’ demand for equipment for drilling exploration, appraisal and development wells and for performing maintenance on existing production wells.  Activity levels of energy companies, including integrated oil companies, independent oil companies and, to a lesser extent, national oil companies are largely driven by the worldwide demand for energy, including crude oil and natural gas.  Worldwide energy supply and demand drives oil and natural gas prices, which, in turn, impact energy companies’ ability to fund investments in exploration, development and production activities.

Since 2014, the industry has experienced a severe cyclical downturn of considerably longer duration than those previously observed.  Multiple years of volatile and generally weak commodity prices, exacerbated in 2020 by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and production disputes among major oil producing countries, have resulted in our customers repeatedly delaying offshore investment decisions and postponing exploration and development programs.  Some of our customers have also recently committed to invest or increase investment in low carbon and renewable energy resources, potentially reducing their expenditures in the development and production of hydrocarbons over the coming decades.  However, even in the context of some diversion of investment away from traditional sources of energy, the structural efficiency gains achieved by the offshore oil and gas segment in the past six years have materially improved the economics of deepwater offshore development projects, making the segment a competitive source of new supply.

We anticipate that the subdued level of contract activity will continue for at least the first half of 2021, although we believe that by the second half of 2021, our customers will again focus on favorable deepwater offshore economics and begin increasing their exploration, production and reserve replacement activities by restarting delayed projects and commencing new campaigns.  This depends on many variables, including global amelioration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of actions by some governments and regulators intended to curtail existing and future drilling activities, and other factors.

Our overall outlook for the offshore drilling sector remains positive, particularly for high-specification assets.  Brazil, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and to a lesser extent, West Africa remain key ultra-deepwater market sectors, while Norway represents the largest harsh environment market.  In addition, in 2020, we saw continued strong tendering activity for Asia and Australia.  Licensing activity also indicated an increased interest in these areas as energy companies looked to explore and develop new prospects.

As the economics of offshore development projects have materially improved, we expect deepwater oil and gas production will continue to be a significant part of the long-term strategy for energy companies as they strive to replace reserves to meet global demand for energy sources and hydrocarbons.  .  These projects are technically demanding due to factors such as water depth, complex well designs, deeper drilling depth, high pressure and temperature, sub-salt geological formations, harsh environments, and heightened regulatory standards; therefore, they require high-specification drilling units.

Generally, high-specification rigs are the most modern, technologically advanced class of the offshore fleet and have capabilities that are attractive to energy companies operating in deeper water depths, other challenging environments or with complex well designs.  We have led the industry and made concerted efforts since the beginning of the prolonged downturn to high-grade our fleet profile by acquiring high-specification assets and disposing of lower-specification assets.  In the year ended December 31, 2018, we significantly enhanced our high-specification asset portfolio with our acquisitions of (i) Songa Offshore SE, (ii) Ocean Rig UDW Inc. and (iii) a 33.0 percent ownership interest in Orion.  During the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we sold for scrap value six, eleven and eight lower-specification drilling units, respectively.

Ultimately, as the hydrocarbon supply-demand balance improves, including as the result of a post-pandemic global economic recovery, we expect a sustained improvement of oil prices, which will result in greater demand for our high-specification fleet of assets, resulting in further improvement of dayrates.  Consequently, when considering the reduced supply of offshore drilling units and expected increase in demand, we expect dayrates for our services should steadily increase over the next several years.  See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks related to our business.”

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Customers

We provide our offshore drilling services to most of the leading integrated oil companies or their affiliates, as well as for many government-owned or government-controlled oil companies and other independent oil companies.  For the year ended December 31, 2020, our most significant customers were Royal Dutch Shell plc (together with its affiliates, “Shell”), Equinor ASA (together with its affiliates, “Equinor”) and Chevron Corporation (together with its affiliates, “Chevron”), representing approximately 28 percent, 27 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of our consolidated operating revenues.  No other customers accounted for 10 percent or more of our consolidated operating revenues in the year ended December 31, 2020.  Additionally, as of February 12, 2021, the customers with the most significant aggregate amount of contract backlog associated with our drilling contracts were Shell, Equinor and Chevron, representing approximately 53 percent, 23 percent and 13 percent, respectively, of our total contract backlog.  See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Risks related to our business—We rely heavily on a relatively small number of customers and the loss of a significant customer or a dispute that leads to the loss of a customer could have an adverse effect on our business.”

Human Capital Resources

Worldwide workforce—As of December 31, 2020, we had a global workforce of approximately 5,350 individuals, including approximately 530 contractors, representing 56 nationalities.  At December 31, 2020, our global workforce is geographically distributed in 25 countries across five continents as follows: 34 percent in Europe, 32 percent in North America, 18 percent in South America, 11 percent in Asia and 5 percent in Africa.

Approximately 43 percent of our total workforce, working primarily in Norway, Brazil and the U.K., are represented by, and some of our contracted labor work is subject to, collective bargaining agreements, substantially all of which are subject to annual salary negotiation.  Negotiations over annual salary or other labor matters could result in higher personnel or other costs or increased operational restrictions or disruptions.  The outcome of any such negotiation generally affects the market for all offshore employees, not only union members.  Furthermore, a failure to reach an agreement on certain key issues could result in strikes, lockouts or other work stoppages.

FIRST Shared Values and corporate culture—Our FIRST Shared Values guide us to act responsibly as we strive to deliver value for our stakeholders, and they form the foundation of our corporate culture as follows:

Development, attraction and retention—We are committed to being the world’s premier offshore drilling contractor, which requires that we develop, retain and attract the industry’s best workforce.  For that reason, we offer regionally competitive compensation and benefits packages, a technically challenging work environment, global opportunities, and rotational development programs.  In addition, our team remains abreast of industry and technology trends and their transformative effects on our work environment.  These advancements necessitate that we continuously develop our workforce, ensuring that they have the skills and competencies for our organization to realize the full benefits of these advancements and responsibly deliver value to our stakeholders.

Training—We maintain a rigorous competency-based training program.  Our internal training board maintains and regularly updates our training matrix to meet or exceed industry standards, and it oversees our competency assurance management system, which is accredited by the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organization.  Offshore training formats include on-the-job, e-learning, customer-specific training, certifications, and leadership and licensing programs.  Unique simulation-based education, augmented by digital twin modeling, enables our workforce to more accurately visualize equipment performance and target efficiencies.  The certifications, skills and competencies needed for each role are clearly articulated to our workforce, and workers are required to successfully complete the relevant training and attain all necessary certifications prior to taking on new roles.

Wellness and benefits—We strive to offer regionally competitive medical and financial benefits, tailored to our workforce demographics, particularly in terms of generational segmentation.  We design our wellness and benefits strategy under four pillars consisting of physical well-being, financial well-being, emotional well-being and social well-being.

Safety—Our safety vision is to conduct our operations in an incident-free workplace, all the time, everywhere.  We prioritize protection of our people, the environment and our property at all work locations and during all operations, and we require compliance with all local regulations and a comprehensive set of internal policies and procedures that govern our operations.  With regular competency and effectiveness assessments, our highly trained crews are equipped to protect our operational integrity with the process-driven management of hazards to prevent and mitigate major hazard accidents.  At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we moved quickly to enact additional health and safety protocols for COVID-19 mitigation, and we have keenly focused on enhanced communication and employee support to engage our workforce in a remote work environment.

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We measure our safety performance in terms of widely accepted ratios with the use of industry standards, including (a) the total recorded incidence rate (“TRIR”), which represents the number of work-related injuries or illnesses for every 200,000 hours worked, and (b) the lost time incidence rate (“LTIR”), which measures the number of incidents that result in lost time due to work-related injuries for every 200,000 hours worked.  In the year ended December 31, 2020, our TRIR was 0.24, and our LTIR was 0.0.

Environmental Responsibility

We constantly look for new ways to advance our commitment to safely performing our operations while simultaneously safeguarding the environment in which we operate.  We assess the environmental impacts of our operations, focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, operational discharges and water use, through increasing energy efficiency and waste minimization.  Our actions are designed to reduce risk in our current and future operations, to promote sound environmental management practices and to continue to be proactive in managing and reducing our environmental footprint.  Our investments and deployment of capital and technology reflect our commitment to improve the energy and emission efficiency of our operations.

When we have decommissioned older and less capable assets, we have demonstrated our commitment to recycle them according to established environmental regulations and guidelines.  All the rigs that we have sold for scrap value have been safely and responsibly recycled following protocols established under the Basel Convention and by the International Maritime Organization at the Hong Kong International Convention.

Technological Innovation

We have a long history of technological innovation, including the first dynamically positioned drillship, the first rig to drill year-round in the North Sea, the first semisubmersible rig for year-round sub-Arctic operations, the first 10,000-ft. water depth rated ultra-deepwater drillship and numerous water depth world records over the past several decades.  Twenty-two drillships and two semisubmersibles in our existing fleet are, and our two drillships that are under construction will be, equipped with our patented dual-activity technology, which allows our rigs to perform simultaneous drilling tasks in a parallel rather than sequential manner, reducing well construction critical path activities and, thereby, improving efficiency in both exploration and development drilling.

We continue to develop and deploy industry-leading technology in the pursuit of delivering safer, more efficient and environmentally responsible drilling services.  In addition to our patented dual-activity drilling technology, our two drillships under construction will include industry-leading 3.5 million-pound hoisting load capability, hybrid energy storage systems for enhanced drill floor equipment reliability, fuel and emissions savings as well as advanced generator protection for power plant reliability.  Ten drillships in our existing fleet are, and our two drillships that are under construction will be, outfitted with dual blowout preventers and triple liquid mud systems.  Our two drillships under construction will be equipped with 20,000 psi blowout preventers and related equipment.  Five drillships in our existing fleet are designed to accept 20,000 psi blowout preventers in the future.

Seven of our harsh environment semisubmersibles are designed and constructed specifically to provide highly efficient performance in the Norwegian North Sea and in the Barents Sea.  In 2019, we deployed the world’s first hybrid energy storage system aboard a floating drilling unit, the harsh environment floater Transocean Spitsbergen, which is the first solution to reduce fuel consumption and emissions while providing enhanced power management and station keeping reliability.  We also continue to develop and invest in technologies designed to optimize our performance and deliver ever better operational integrity through innovations, such as our proprietary fault-resistant and fault-tolerant blowout preventer control system.  We have installed automated drilling control systems on six harsh environment floaters, which materially improves our ability to safely and efficiently deliver wells to our customers.

We have also deployed our smart equipment analytics tool, which delivers real-time data feeds from equipment and is used to monitor equipment health and inferred emissions and energy consumption.  This technology can also identify trends in performance that allow us to systematically optimize equipment maintenance and achieve higher levels of reliability, operational efficiency and sustainability.  This data-driven approach, augmented by the size of our fleet, is helping us build a knowledge framework for sustainable process optimization.  Additionally, our continued, acute focus on personnel safety has driven the development and deployment of our patented HaloGuard system, which will alarm, notify and, if required, halt equipment to avoid injury to personnel who move into danger zones.

We believe our efforts to continuously improve, and effectively use, innovative technologies to meet or exceed our customers’ requirements is critical to maintaining our competitive position within the contract drilling services industry by drilling more efficient wells, building greater resilience into our critical operating systems, ensuring the safety of our crews, and reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

Governmental Regulations

Our operations are subject to a variety of international, regional, national, state and local government regulations, including environmental regulations.  We monitor our compliance with such government regulations in each country of operation and, while we see an increase in many government regulations, particularly general environmental regulation, we have made and will continue to make the required expenditures to comply with current and future government requirements.  To date, we have not incurred material costs in order to comply with such government regulations, including environmental regulation, and do not expect to make any material capital expenditures in order to comply with such regulations in the year ended December 31, 2021, or any other period contemplated at this time.  We do not believe that

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our compliance with such requirements will have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, consolidated results of operations or cash flows.  We incorporate by reference into this subsection “—Government Relations” the disclosures on government regulations, including environmental regulations, contained in the following sections of this annual report on Form 10-K:

Joint Venture, Agency and Sponsorship Relationships and Other Investments

In some areas of the world, local customs and practice or governmental requirements necessitate the formation of joint ventures with local participation since local laws or customs in those areas effectively mandate the establishment of a relationship with a local agent or sponsor.  When appropriate in these areas, we may enter into agency or sponsorship agreements.  We also invest in certain companies for operational purposes, some of which are involved in researching and developing technology to improve efficiency and reliability and to increase automation, sustainability and safety for our drilling and other activities.  We may or may not control these partially owned companies.  At December 31, 2020, we held partial ownership interests in companies in the Cayman Islands, the U.S., Norway, Canada, Angola, Nigeria and other countries, the most significant of which was our 33.0 percent ownership interest in Orion, an unconsolidated Cayman Islands exempted company formed to construct and own the harsh environment semisubmersible Transocean Norge.  Certain affiliates of Hayfin Capital Management LLP, own the remaining 67.0 percent ownership interest in Orion not owned by us.

Available Information

Our website address is www.deepwater.com.  Information contained on or accessible from our website is not incorporated by reference into this annual report on Form 10-K and should not be considered a part of this report or any other filing that we make with the SEC.  Furthermore, references to our website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.  We make available on this website free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file those materials with, or furnish those materials to, the SEC.  You may also find on our website information related to our corporate governance, board committees and company code of business conduct and ethics.  The SEC also maintains a website, www.sec.gov, which contains reports, proxy statements and other information regarding SEC registrants, including us.  We intend to satisfy the requirement under Item 5.05 of Form 8-K to disclose any amendments to our Code of Integrity and any waiver from any provision of our Code of Integrity by posting such information in the Governance page on our website at www.deepwater.com.

Item 1A.Risk Factors

Risks related to our business

Our business depends on the level of activity in the offshore oil and gas industry, which is significantly affected by volatile oil and gas prices and other factors.

Our business depends on the level of activity in oil and gas exploration, development and production in offshore areas worldwide.  Demand for our services depends on oil and natural gas industry activity and expenditure levels that are directly affected by trends in oil and, to a lesser extent, natural gas prices.  Oil and gas prices are extremely volatile and are affected by numerous factors, including the following: